St Bridget
The Parish Church of St. Brides-super-Ely is dedicated to Bridget (or Brigit), a saint of the Celtic Christian church. St. Bridget's Parish is affiliated with the Anglican Church in Wales and a member of the East Vale Group of Parishes.
The Norman parish church of St. Brides-super-Ely was built in the early part of the 13th century and has been in continuous use since that time. During the medieval period, churches were dedicated to a specific saint. The parish church of St. Bride's-super-Ely was consecrated to St. Bridget of Kildare, Ireland. Although St. Bridget was known for her travels throughout Britain and her propensity for starting churches, there is no indication that she visited this Parish.
From a plaque by the entry door:
Welcome to this Church.
May you be at home here.
For this is a place
Where the love of God is made known.
Bring him your needs,
Especially for his forgiveness and His power,
And pray for the needs of the world.
The Yew Tree
Some historians believe that St. Bride's-super-Ely is the location of one of the earliest Christian settlements in Glamorgan. This is possible, since the yew tree in the churchyard is believed to be older than the church and the largest in South Wales. It sits on a mound that local residents believe marks the remains of a Druid worship site. Yew trees are important in pagan Celtic symbolism. Early Christian missionaries often utilized established sites with religious significance as locations for their churches and communities. There are paving stones set into the ground around the base of the tree, although their date is not known. The site is unexcavated, so it is still a mystery.
About the Church and it's restoration
The church was valued at £2 in 1254 (Taxation of Norwich). In 1291, it may well have been one of the unnamed chapels of Peterston, which, at that date, was valued at £3-19s-0d (Taxatio Ecclesiastica). St. Bride's patron was resident in 1563.
The church consists of chancel, nave, south porch, and western tower containing one bell. The edifice was rebuilt in 1849, but no drawings of the structure prior to the restoration have been located. The 1849 work installed the Norman outer arch of the south porch, the pseudo-Norman chancel arch, and the east window. The church was reopened for divine service on the 6th September 1849.
The church underwent further restoration in 1902, which included repairs to the tower, the addition of a vestry on the north side of the chancel, the laying down of wood-block flooring, reseating the nave, erecting a glazed screen to the tower arch, the insertion of a new three-light window in the south wall of the nave, and general repairs to the whole fabric of the church. The cost of restoration amounted to £350. The contractors were Messrs. Harries and Davies of Cardiff. Additional work was completed in 1902 by G. E. Halliday. The church was reopened for divine service after restoration on Thursday 6th March 1902, by the venerable F. W. Edmondes, Archdeacon of Llandaff, a former rector of St Bride's (1867-1873). At the present time, the building needs further restoration so that it can continue to serve the parish.
The chancel arch is a replica of the original Norman work and was placed in the church in the restoration of 1849. It is a plain, semicircular arch of two orders with simple square spots beneath a plain moulding to the edge of the outer arch. The square abacus from which the arch springs has a continuous band of star ornament - a widely used 12th-century motif. On either side an engaged column is let into the wall; it has barely scalloped capitals above a single roll.
Carvings on the pulpit and altar complement these designs and echo the style of the east window lights above the altar. The chancel is lit on the south side by a single light with cinquefoiled head. The window depicts the figure of St. Bridget holding a crosier in her hand. It was erected as a memorial to the Reverend David Jenkins, rector of the parish (1909-1949), and his wife Minnie Jenkins, by their daughters in 1954, in accordance with a design by Hubert Thomas of Celtic Studios, Swansea.
The south wall of the chancel contains a priest's door with four-centred arch. The south wall holds a memorial tablet in Penarth alabaster surmounted by a coat-of-arms with four quarterings, each containing a lion rampant. The tablet commemorates Captain William Jones (d. 1658) and his sons, William (d. 1648) and Robert (d. 1650). The north wall of the chancel contains a brass plaque that serves as a memorial to those men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918. A doorway with four-centred arch leads to a modern vestry on the north side of the chancel.
Windows
The east window, canopy, and niche, were brought from the chapel of Llanfair Fawr at Sant-y-Nyll when that chapel was demolished in 1849. An extract from the Gentleman's Magazine reads:
"The chapel of Llanvair Vawr (St. Mary) stood one mile to the south of Llaniltern Chapel, near the turnpike road leading from Cardiff to the town of Llantrisant, and distant about six miles from the former place.
The history of this edifice is involved in the utmost obscurity, as is that of a small mansion house situated to the east of it, in a stile not older than James the First reign. The property belongs to the Hon. R. H. Clive, M. P. in right of his wife the Lady Harriet, sister of the Earl of Plymouth of Saint Fagin's Castle in this neighbourhood. Rees, in his Essay on the Welsh Saints, notices the chapel.
The sketches from which the accompanying glyphographs were made, represent the fabric as it appeared six years ago. Unfortunately it has been subsequently demolished. A representation made by a neighbouring antiquarian to Mr. Clive never reaching its destination, a circumstance which is regretted by the proprietor.
The chancel was 21ft. 9in. long within; the nave (part of which appears to the left of the buttresses) was 20 feet long. The breadth on either side of the perpendicular east window was 5ft. 3in. The south window was in the decorated style. The cross wall separating the nave from the chancel was 2ft. 8in. thick, and there was a low romanesque arch devoid of mouldings which formed the western entrance to the nave. The oak roof of the chancel was in good preservation, and had been of late covered with thatch, the building having been desecrated by its conversion into a cow-house. Portions of the east window, the canopy over the altar, and other stone work have been preserved, and will be used in some projected repairs in the neighbouring church of St Brides-super Ely; the workmanship is of superior character. J.M.T."
The east window contains three lights with round trefoil heads, which are repeated in the two panels in the head. The stained glass ornamentation in the window was placed there in 1956 in memory of Allan Everett Renwick and David and Ada Llewellin-Evans in accordance with the design by George G. Pace, architect of York.
The stained glass consists of ten roundels and a panel of 14th- and 15th-Century glass set in a clear background. The subjects are, from left to right:
- Good and evil
- Censing angels
- Angels
- Salome dancing
- Return of Tobias
- The Resurrection of Our Lord
- St William of York
- Angel
- Beheading of John the Baptist
- Tobias and Angel
- Descent from the Cross
In addition to memorial windows and fixtures described elsewhere in this article, St. Bridget's has some unique commemorative markers. Local tradition has it that several men of the parish, killed at the nearby Battle of St. Fagan's in 1648 (during the Civil War), lie buried beneath the chancel floor. A memorial tablet of Penarth alabaster, on the south wall, is surmounted by a coat of arms with four quarterings, each containing a lion rampant. The tablet commemorates Captain William Jones (d. 1648) and his sons William (d. 1648) and Robert (d.1650). It is not known whether there is any connection between these men and the battle.
Further information about the buiding
The nave, which has a trussed rafter roof, is lit on the north side by a pair of two-light windows, one with ogee-foliated head, the other cinquefoiled, both under square heads, labelled. On the south side are two windows, the south-east window is a 19th-Century insertion of three pointed lights, square headed with label. Internally the heads of the lights are ogee-shaped, trefoiled with cusps. The south-west window of the nave is of two trefoil lights under ogee arches with label and square headed.
The modern stone lectern (pulpit) has a hexagonal drum and a castellated cornice. The panels are arranged as single lights between the muntins, cinquefoiled with rectilinear tracery in the head.
The font is a typical plain 14th-Century design, even if the bowl is misshapen. It is octagonal throughout with a moulded rim and underside and again at either end of the stem. The base is simply a continuation of the piece above splayed out to meet the floor.
The tower opens to the nave by an obtusely pointed arch. The tower is tall and slender with saddleback roof surmounted by two crosses. The belfry is lit on each face by a single trefoil-headed louvered lancet and on its north, south and west faces are slit-loopholes at various levels. The west doorway has a pointed arch with hooded moulding, and above is a small pointed lancet surmounted by a rare ancient bishop's consecration cross. The tower houses a single bell, inscribed Llewellins & James, Bristol 1871.
A manuscript account of Margam Abbey, written in 1797 by the Rev. William Thomas of Baglan, has a marginal note in the hand of the Rev. John Montgomery Traherne, who stated that "a Romanesque arch was discovered when a stable abutting on the south side of the old building east of the almshouses was taken down in March 1840." Presumably, the arch was part of the fabric of the building.
The inner arch of the porch has a Norman rounded arch, around which there is herringbone decoration. Inside the porch are stone benches, and resting on the western one is a stone memorial to three men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918. This memorial was originally in the Chapel, since converted to a house, which is adjacent to the church.
The inner arch is adorned by chevron or zigzag decoration above little scalloped capitals. The chamfered outer arch, which springs from square ababi above trumpet capitals -- the western one with a hint of volute -- is surmounted by a row of chevrons ornamented at right angles to the surface of the wall. To the west is an inscribed consecration cross, a smaller one to the east of a doorway and another let in at the head.
On the south side of the west doorway is a memorial tablet set into the west wall of the tower. This is now unreadable but is said to be in memory of a four-year-old boy named William Gyles. An extract from Cardiff Records Vol. II of 1764 reads:
"Inquest taken at the village of St. Brides sup. Ely, in the county of Glamorgan, on the body of William Gyles, an infant, found that the deceased having thrown down a hive of bees, the said bees fastened upon him and stung him in his head and neck, which occasioned strong convulsive fits, by which he died."
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About the Cache
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